The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and method, which extract ruled lines included in an original image having a predetermined format or a region surrounded by the ruled lines.
Also, the present invention relates to a character recognition apparatus and method, which recognize characters present in a region surrounded by ruled lines included in an original image having a predetermined format, and an image recognition apparatus and method, which recognize the format of an input original image.
In a conventional image processing apparatus which extracts a region surrounded by ruled lines included in an original image, as the method of extracting the region, the original image is divided in units of regions surrounded by ruled lines. The coordinate positions of the regions surrounded by the ruled lines obtained by the region division processing are acquired, and the regions surrounded by the ruled lines are extracted based on the acquired coordinate positions.
When a region surrounded by ruled lines in an original image is to be extracted, each region surrounded by ruled lines is extracted using image data obtained by reading the original image by, e.g., a scanner.
When characters present in a region surrounded by ruled lines included in an original image as an object to be processed of the image processing apparatus are to be recognized, only characters present in regions of an original image having a specific format with a predetermined layout of regions can only be recognized.
However, since the conventional image processing apparatus extracts regions surrounded by ruled lines included in image data of an original image on the basis of the coordinate positions, if the original image is read at an offset position, the coordinate position of each region to be extracted surrounded by the ruled lines also offsets, and a desired region cannot be accurately extracted.
In order to extract a desired region surrounded by ruled lines included in an original image, a method of extracting all the regions surrounded by the ruled lines included in the original image and extracting the desired region after regions other than the desired region are deleted is available. Alternatively, a method of extracting a desired region surrounded by ruled lines by designating the desired region to be distinguished from other regions surrounded by ruled lines before reading an original image is also available. However, either method requires a user to perform cumbersome manual operations to extract the region, thus lowering the extraction processing efficiency.
Even when a desired region surrounded by ruled lines can be extracted by region division processing, the presence/absence of region division processing errors must be visually checked by the operator.
Also, even when a desired region surrounded by ruled lines included in an original image is to be extracted as one of items constituting the original image, if region division processing errors have occurred, a wrong item may be extracted.
When characters present in a region surrounded by ruled lines included in an original image are to be recognized, such recognition method cannot be applied to original images having a plurality of different formats, resulting in poor compatibility.
For this reason, in order to recognize characters present in regions included in original images having a plurality of different formats in place of a specific format, image recognition that can recognize the format of an original image is also required.
In order to read characters included in a region surrounded by ruled lines included in an original image having a specific format using, e.g., a scanner, the reading position must be accurately determined, resulting in cumbersome operations in character recognition processing.